Akogun Smith

Yoruba did not invent Ifa. They imported it. Before you let your emotions take over, calm yourself down. The original name of this system was ʿIlm al-Raml, The Science of Sand. It was developed by Black populations in Aswan and the Nile Valley long before it ever reached West Africa. The whole framework is pure binary mathematics. It uses a base of 16 figures that multiply out into 256 probabilities. This is what Yoruba people call the 256 Odu. If you want to know, go and read the historical manuscripts of North African scholars especially that of Shaykh Abdallah al-Zanati. He documented this binary science centuries ago. Every single one of the 16 primary Odu in Ifa has a direct Arabic mathematical equivalent in Zanati’s records. The figure the Arabs called Tariq is what the Yoruba call Ogbe. The figure they called Jama'a is what the Yoruba call Oyeku. The mathematical coding is identical. You cannot debate this. When ancient people migrated from the Nubian corridors and Arab Trans-Saharan trade routes opened up, Islamic scholars and merchants brought this architectural blueprint with them into West Africa. The Yoruba are genius custodians. They assimilated it brilliantly. They mapped this imported Arab-transmitted science onto their own indigenous cosmology, attributed it to Orunmila, and named it Ifa. But being a great preserver is not the same as being the originator. This is why you find the very same system everywhere along those migration routes. The Fon call it Fa. The Ewe call it Afa. In Madagascar it is Sikidy. The medieval Europeans even copied it and translated the Arabic name into Geomancy. If we have been quiet about this, it does not mean we do not know. History does not care about modern sentiments. By historical origin and transmission, Ifa is Esin Arabu. The blueprint came from Aswan and arrived through Arab corridors. Facts don’t lie. Allah knows best.